Denny Crane upsets in Chief Minister’s Cup

July 2 , 2017

Pesi Shroff who has made a habit of winning almost every week`s feature event during the ongoing summer season, had another success through Denny Crane who put behind below par efforts in his last few runs by resolutely staying in front from the word `go` and staving off the late rally of Multitude to win the Gr 3 1200 metres Chief Minister`s Cup, a terms race for four-year-olds and over, the feature event of Sunday`s races. Stablemate Captain Courage was the favourite but the five-year-old who was returning to the race track after a long break, played up at the gates and was examined by the vet before being allowed to run. Captain Courage looked out of sorts and ran a miserable last.

The race had an open look about it as it was difficult to pinpoint any horse having outstanding merit to win the race. The local contenders have seen better days and are on the last leg of their career. Kolkata challenger Multitude had the credentials having been unfortunate in the Sprinters Cup where the luck of the race had gone against him. The only question mark was whether he would be sharp enough for the six-furlong trip as the Bangalore track which is now showing a bias for front-runners. Captain Courage who had a series of wins in his career, hadn`t run since the last Pune season, laid low by a problem to the hoof. Since he had proved to be invincible in all his runs, he was backed with conviction to win the race despite the obvious shortcomings.

Jockey J Chinoy took Denny Crane to the front and the progeny of Arazan enjoyed his foray in front as he stayed put and fought on grimly to retain his advantage. The only strong challenger for Denny Crane was Siobhan who raced up with the pace. Multitude who was in about the fifth position at the final bend, had some leeway to cover. Though the progeny of Multidimensional came up with a big burst of speed, he ran out of ground in the end. Jockey Sandesh on this track has been far from ineffective these days as his poor positioning has seen him lose a few races which he should have won. Multitude once again was unlucky as the jockey timed his challenge a fraction late. On the fast track of the Bangalore race course, it is proving to be difficult for horses to come from way off the pace as the front-runners are having enough legs to pull through which was what was highlighted in almost all the races of the day. Siobhan stayed on to finish third. Smile Stone disappointed and was not seen at the busy end. The winner clocked a fast time of one minute 11.28 seconds.

Inayathulla trained Pinyada brought off the biggest priced win of the day in the 1400 metres Pendragon Plate, a race for maiden three-year-olds. Carnarvon and Gandharva were the strong market fancies but both these runners were not spotted to have any chance. Habanero shaped to win but was shocked by the late burst of Pinyada who prevailed in the hands of jockey Merchant. Habanero nosed out Great Tribute to get the runner-up berth. Great Tribute showed a lot of improvement over his previous effort.

After the first five races of the day gone the way of long shots, Bora Bora provided some relief for the chasers of favourites. The three-year-old filly Bora Bora shot into an early lead at the top of the straight and comfortably stayed in front to land the spoils. Desert Falcon managed to nose out strongly fancied Marina Del Rey who warmed up too late to have any say at the finish.

Imtiaz Khan trained Call Me Maybe had a good forward run over a mile and looked ready to strike in the 1200 metres Honeyday Plate, a race for horses rated 15 to 35. Call Me Maybe moved with a flourish after coming wide into the straight and sped clear in the final furlong for a decisive win. Humming Bird necked out Ultimate Power to snatch the runner-up berth.

Ambleside had a chance to repeat provided apprentice jockey Vishal Bunde had some competence. He proved that he had none when he rode an atrocious race to deny the horse of any chance in the 1200 metrees Col Rajkumar C Desraj Urs Memorial Cup, a race for horses rated 45 to 65. The race was won by longshot Dream Star under apprentice Ryan Ahmed, in a catch me if you can manner. Fair Game kept I`ve Got Clout at bay to get the second place.

The 1200 metres Supervite Plate (Div I) saw the favoured duo of Rocket Punch and Ira making no show. The race itself was won by long shot Fine Barristor from trainer Md Khan`s stable with jockey Raja Rao in the saddle. Mistress of Spice was second ahead of Nagarjuna. BTC is fond of dividing the race for the lowest category while refusing to extend the same concession to higher class horses and thus we had another race which was the lower division of the race. It came as no surprise that yet another horse at long odds namely Angelic Love won at the expense of heavily backed Helios. Ex-jockey M R Singh who got his license to train at the beginning of this season, thus led in the first winner of his career.